The infrastructure of a typical computer network may include a collection of interconnected network devices, including routers and switches. For example, a network may be set up to include multiple edge routers forming the logical outer boundaries of the network and multiple core switches and routers for forwarding packets between devices within the logical outer boundaries of the network. These interconnected network devices may form multiple redundant physical paths between any two points on the network. By distributing traffic between the two points across these redundant paths, network robustness increases, and the burden of managing packet flow is distributed across multiple devices.
One method of exploiting redundant physical paths in a network is through the use of Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs). By creating multiple VLANs in the same physical domain, the infrastructure of a network may implement multiple logically separate broadcast domains. The separate broadcast domains associated with the different VLANs may use different intermediary routers or switches to route network traffic between the same two points. By assigning different client devices to different VLANs, traffic to and from popular points on the network may be more evenly distributed across the infrastructure devices of the network. Such a configuration typically requires a network administrator to manually assign specific network access points and/or groups of users to specific VLANs, which can be a time-consuming task and increase the complexity of network management.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.